P-8 Poseidon fires first Harpoon anti-ship missile

The US Navy successfully fired a live Boeing AGM-84D Block IC Harpoon anti-ship missile from a Boeing P-8A Poseidon for the first time on 24 June over the Point Mugu sea test range in California.

The weapon scored a direct hit on a low-cost modular target, the service says.

US Naval Air Systems Command

"The successful launch of one of the US Navy's most dependable over-the-horizon all-weather anti-ship missiles, the Harpoon Block IC, from the P-8A is a significant milestone in naval aviation," says Capt Carl Chebi, the Naval Air Systems Command's precision strike weapons programme manager.

The navy says the purpose of the testing was to validate the weapons hardware and software integration.